Partisan supporters of Prime Minister Stephen Harper — led by Conservative staffers —purposely drowned out media questions Saturday about a controversial endorsement from a man with links to the Air India bombing. Harper was in Mississauga, Ont., where he hoped to use the venue of a Coptic Christian place of worship on Easter Weekend to promote his platform promise of a new office of religious freedom.

But two controversies about extremism overshadowed that message. A Tory candidate in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough has been shown to be a vocal supporter of the banned Tamil Tigers, prompting Conservative cabinet minister Peter Kent to say someone in his party's organization "obviously dropped the ball." And a Vancouver candidate is trying to distance herself from an endorsement from a high-profile Sikh advocate who has long been linked to the Air India bombing and the controversial Babbar Khalsa movement.

He's handling his campaign like he handles his government. In total secrecy.